Nokia shifts 13m 2.6m 5800 phones

Model numbers cause sales confusion for Nokia exec

A Nokia executive recently claimed that the firm had sold a whopping 13m 5800 Xpress Music handsets. But, after checking its warehouses, Nokia’s since realised that it hasn’t even sold half that amount.

According to various reports, Rob Taylor, Director of Forum Nokia North America, announced at the CTIA Wireless event in Las Vegas earlier this month that the 5800 Xpress Music – Nokia’s first touchscreen phone, launched in the UK during January – had so far sold 13m units.

Given Nokia confirmed that it had already shipped 1m of the phones by the end of January, a further 12m sales inside roughly three months is a pretty impressive figure.

Sadly for Nokia though, Taylor had confused the 5800 Xpress Music with the sales figures for the 5310 Xpress Music, according to a company Twitter feed. The 5310’s been available, in various designs, since 2007.

Perhaps it’s an easy mistake to make, though? Especially since nearly all of Nokia’s phone models are named using mixtures of four numbers.

In actual fact Nokia sold 2.6m 5800 Xpress Music handsets during the first quarter, according to a report by website Nokia Conversations – which is run by a team that, helpfully, has “the benefit of sitting right in the middle of Nokia’s communications department”. ®